It is the 4th week of December, 2011 and the holiday season is beginning to wind down. I hope yours was merry and bright. Floors and in particular kitchen floors have taken a beating lately, so I'll talk about kitchen floors this morning.
I've found that most of the mess on a kitchen floor is along the counter tops and in front of the stove, fridge and sink. It is most effective to use a wet (but not drippy) cleaning cloth and wipe by hand around the edge of the kitchen floor. Often when we vacuum, the crumbs are shoved up against the wall under the cabinets by the bristles on the front edge of the vacuum floor tool and do not get vacuumed up. By wiping the edges by hand we can get the crumbs away from the edges where the vacuum can get them. While you're down there, putting moisture on and giving a wipe to the high traffic areas and spills will loosen the dirt and make it easier to mop. If your knees are bad and getting down on the floor is hard, I suggest you drop the cloth on the floor and use your foot to wipe around, then you can just bend over to pick up the cloth and not have to actually get down on your hands and knees.
Anytime we vacuum a hard floor, the bristles along the front edge of the floor tool push the crumbs along. The only way they get sucked up is if the crumbs fit between the bristles or if the bristles are cut with spaces for the dirt to get past the bristles. The best way to ensure you are actually vacuuming up everything is to * vacuum slowly and * tip the handle down so that the front edge of the vacuum floor tool raises up slightly and allows the suction to pull the dirt right up. Get in the habit of tipping the handle down at the end of each forward stroke to raise the bristles slightly. Have a look at the bristles on your floor tool and picture them in your mind as they slide across a hard floor. If you have a tile floor, the dirt may drop into the grout and the suction passes over the top. It takes time for the debris to get sucked up so vacuum slowly. If you slow down you won't have to do so many repetitions. Try to keep a mental image of what is actually happening on the floor as you vacuum. Listen for the sound of crumbs going up the vacuum and feel the suction pulling on the floor. You will miss these sensations if you go too fast or are distracted. Slow down and focus on the action down there on the floor. This is the best way to improve your technique and to make the most of your cleaning time. Your vacuum is a "power tool" and in your hands it is the most important tool you have for keeping a healthy home. It is well worth your time to think about your technique and a waste of time to vacuum poorly.
O.K., we have the kitchen floor prepped by giving it a wipe around the edges and loosened up by hand the sticky stuff, etc. We have vacuumed slowly and carefully, listening for the dirt to go up the vacuum and feeling the suction as we stroke and tip and pull back the vac. It's time to mop. This morning, I will go over the basic helpful hints. At some point in the near future, I will have to go over different types of mops, different types of floors and different cleaners. For today, I'll just talk about the basics. The whole idea of water and soap and mop is to get the dirt up off the floor without leaving any soap behind and doing so in a thorough but timely manner. It only takes a small amount of soap to improve the cleaning power of water and mop so my first helpful hint is use as little soap as possible. It takes a lot of water to rinse an over abundance of soap off the floor. I don't care for the bucket method of floor cleaning since you have to put your mop back into the dirty water. If you don't want to rinse your mop in the kitchen sink, use two buckets. One of barely soapy water to dip the mop in and a bucket to hold the dirty water. Always put a clean surface to what ever it is you are cleaning. Whether it be the kitchen floor, a mirror, the stair railings, whatever. Continually wiping with the same cloth surface against what you are cleaning is a waste of time. Using minimally soapy water on a damp, not drippy mop starting in one corner and work in sections. Give the floor a few strokes, maybe several strokes if the floor in that area isn't too dirty, and rinse the mop. Put the clean surface of the mop back on the floor and give it a few more strokes and rinse it again. If you are using a sponge mop, the surface that actually cleans the floor is only about 20 square inches. Sure, the sponge is picking up dirt and soaking it into the sponge but the actual surface that slides across the floor gets dirty quickly and is just smearing that stuff around. * Minimal soap, * not too much water on the floor and * rinse the mop head often. Incorporate these ideas into your technique and you will be more efficient, reaching your goal of a clean kitchen floor in less time with less work. I hope you find this information useful and there is much more I have to share on this topic.
Have a great day and a happy and prosperous New Year.
